Ata-ul-Kareem Shahid on the day of his graduation 17 June 1949 with his father Hadrat Abul Ata Jalandari

Ata-ul-Kareem Shahid

Name at birth:

Ata-ul-Kareem Shahid

Date of birth:

24th July 1937

Place of birth:

Qadian, India

Date of death:

17th May 2015

Place of death:

London

Resting place:

Submitted by:

Ata Khalid

Ataul Kareem Shahid carried the same cheerful features that distinguished his father, Hadrat Abul Ata Jalandari, holder of the title Khalid-e-Ahmaddiyat. The resemblance between their smiles would seldom escape the notice of those who observed them both, whether in real life or frozen in time in photographs. Those close to Shahid Sahib champion another congruence that marked this son as his fathers, one that belongs to a higher rank of virtue and is incomparable in its worth; his unlimited kindness and generosity towards every soul that neared the threshold of his life. His loved ones remember his all encompassing warmth to friends and strangers alike, his zeal for making connections with people from all walks of life and introducing to them the message of Islam Ahmaddiya, a passion which remained unwavering even after his retirement as a missionary. For most of his seventy seven years on earth Ataul Karim Shahid Sahib pledged his life to the Ahmaddiya Muslim community in the cause of promulgating the pristine & peaceful teachings of Islam as espoused by the reformist movement, founded by the Promised Messiah Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) He served in Africa and Pakistan in his role as missionary and was a skilled orator as well as an avid reader. His love for knowledge was manifested in the myriad of subjects encompassed in his personal library: political, medical, religious (he possessed more than one Bible.) and cultural, his interests spanned borders and ideologies and was reflected in his lack of discrimination and enthusiasm for conversation with anyone who came his way. But despite all this he hadn’t planned a life of religious service. At the age of twenty two, having completed the required education and passed the first exam that would pave the way for a prominent and high ranking career in the military, he received news of the sudden death of his older half-sister, who was an excellent writer and had been the editor of the Ahmadi newspaper Al-Misbah, and till then was the only child of her father, Khalid-e-Ahmaddiyat, serving the faith. Her father had been content that at least one of his children had followed in his footsteps but on hearing of her death Shahid Sahib realised that it meant that now none of his father’s offspring were championing the cause of Islam Ahmaddiya. So, casting aside all worldly ambition and desire, Ataul Kareem Shahid turned away from his military aspirations and pledged himself to the lifelong service to the faith and began what ended in eight years of study to become a fully-fledged missionary of the community.

Biographies of worldly fame have a way of wiping clean an otherwise less than golden slate. But such magpie prestige suffers the inevitable fate of erosion as newer glitters transfix popular attention.

Ataul-Kareem- Shahid Sahib’s eminence, however, reflected in his compassionate and dynamic life, is firmly locked in the weighty vaults of heaven, and cast its shadow back to earth through the images of his loved ones memories.

He left his widow, Mrs. Amatul Basit Shahid, and his three children; his daughter Mrs. Amatul Wasay Ahmad wife of Mr. Waleed Ahmad, his oldest son Dr Ata-ul-Habib Khalid and his younger son Mr. Ata-ul-Ala Zafar.

May Allah the Almighty grant his soul eternal contentment, may his spirit soar through the loftiest ranks of paradise, may Jannat-ul-Firdaus be his final kingdom.